


I Will Wait

by Mackem



Series: Imaginary Advent Calendar 2012 [10]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012), Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Christmas, Crossover, F/M, M/M, Pining, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-10
Updated: 2012-12-10
Packaged: 2017-11-20 20:18:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/589263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mackem/pseuds/Mackem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leo McCoy is much too stubborn to believe in fairytales. Jack is much too stubborn to forget Leo McCoy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Will Wait

**Author's Note:**

> Every year, I write what I call my Imaginary Advent Calendar, where each day until December 25th I open another day of an advent calendar that doesn’t exist and write what I picture various people or characters in different shows/fandoms/books in a holidays context. This year I’ve challenged myself to write a ficlet for every day. See Vicky panic! They’ll be in various different fandoms and pairings, and won’t be particularly long (except the ones that eat my brain). Enjoy! X!
> 
> I don't even know. I went to see Rise of the Guardians, promptly went to see it again, and given that I already ship Kirk/McCoy hard... Honestly, I'm as bemused as you. I blame Chris Pine's voice.

Things have been better for Jack, since…well. Everything. Becoming a Guardian, fighting back Pitch, gaining people’s belief - pick one. But there are always people who are stubborn. Too obstinate to have faith in anything magical.

One kid in particular refuses to believe. He's called Leonard McCoy, though everyone calls him Leo. Jack likes him. A lot.

The kid is smart. _Incredibly_ smart. Jack once overheard a conversation between the boy and his father, where his dad was assuring him that even if he _was_ skipping a school year, it didn’t mean much; it didn’t mean there was any pressure on him. He was just like everybody else.

Jack disagrees with this. Leo McCoy is special, even if he can’t quite put a finger on why that is. Maybe it’s because he’s so stubborn and proud; much too proud to believe in anything as whimsical as the Easter Bunny, or Father Christmas…or Jack Frost. His mom - his _mama_ , he calls her, and Jack melts a little every time - is full of stories about all of them, Jack included. She believed, when she was young. He remembers her. He’s been visiting this town for years now.

No, Leo likes science, and medicine, and facts, and knowledge. He doesn’t seem to have a lot of time for anything like faith. Jack’s still used to not being believed in, but not like this. Not because somebody flat-out _refuses_ to believe in him.

So maybe he plays favourites a little, and tries his hardest to get this kid to see him. He visits every winter and, every moment he can, he follows the kid around and tries his best to change his mind.

What he learns about Leo is that he wants more than anything to be a doctor, and he’s starting early. The kid is never without a book in his hands, and they’re always medical in nature. He never seems bored; he seems to like to read more than he likes to do anything else. Including playing with the other kids. Leo McCoy, it seems, is a loner.

“You’re wishing your childhood away, y’know,” he tells him one day, as he watches Leo lie absorbed in a medical journal he’s spirited from his father’s office. “Aren’t you, like, eight? You should be up a tree right now. Or playing baseball. Or putting a frog in somebody’s pants! Believe me, that’s _way_ more fun than,” he hovers above Leo and glances at the name of the article, “Neurofibromatosis? Jeez, kid.”

Jack has done everything he can to get this kid to see him, and nothing works. Every time the boy is shooed outside and made to play with the neighbourhood kids, Jack starts a snowball fight. Everybody loves a snowball fight!

Except Leo McCoy, he realises eventually. Jack is having the time of his life, cheering for everyone, keeping the ammo up, evening things out when bigger kids try to pelt tiny ones. Everyone is rosy-cheeked and laughing and full of life, and Jack loves it. Then he takes a step back, and realises Leo has vanished.

He’s easy enough to find, at least. Jack spots footprints heading away from the battle, each stomped good and hard into the snow, and follows them with a sigh. He finds Leo seated cross-legged under a snowy tree in the field behind his house, a medical dictionary in his lap.

"I don't get you, kid," Jack sighs, unheeded. He floats up in the air and settles on a frosty branch above him. "Who doesn't like snowball fights? That's three you've run away from. _Three_. That’s right, I was counting."

Leo doesn't hear him, of course. Jack sighs, and clambers down to settle cross-legged opposite him on the icy ground. "Are you even a kid?” he asks sceptically. “I’m not so sure, y’know. You don't like ice skating, you don't like sledging, you _hate_ making snow angels…are you an old man in disguise?"

A drop of water falls from the spreading branches above and lands on Leo's nose; another spills onto the pages of his book. Leo scrubs at it with an annoyed noise, and makes to get to his feet with a glare aimed up at the branches.

"No, don't go! I've got it," Jack says quickly and aims a whoosh of cold air up into the tree. The melting snow freezes rapidly, and Jack wiggles his fingers, drawing it down into a beautiful, intricate icicle as Leo watches. “See? No drips on my watch, kid.”

“How did that…” Leo breathes, and Jack sits bolt upright.

“Think it over,” he says urgently, with the beginnings of a smile. “How could that happen, huh? Can you explain that with your science, kid? How could any of them happen?” he asks, shooting jets of cold air into the tree from both hands and shaping each branch’s snowfall into fragile icicles. Jack beams as Leo’s mouth draws into an awed smile, rare and beautiful. “Yeah? They’re good, right? Just for you,” he breathes.

Leo cocks his head, and looks around suddenly. “Is someone there?”

“You can hear me?” Jack gasps, and scoots closer, kneeling up. “You can hear me! Can’t you? Look,” he says urgently, and a wave of his hands sends flakes of snow streaming up from the ground, whirling around the two of them. Leo gazes in amazement. “Yes! How could that happen on its own, huh? Look, look at me,” he murmurs, and Leo’s hazel eyes narrow as he gazes directly where Jack is, questioning and vague but definitely _there_ and -

“LEO! DINNER!” Leo’s head snaps towards his house, attention snatched away, and Jack sighs as he scrambles to his feet.

“Coming, Mama!”

“Augh,” Jack groans, and lets himself sprawl on his back in the snow, the flakes dropping dispiritedly. He watches Leo trot away, struggling through the snow and grumbling to himself as he goes. “C’mon, kid, you’re killing me. I’ll make you believe in me!” he calls after the retreating figure, and his heart lurches as the kid stops for a second and glances back, confusion written all over his face. He sighs when Leo shrugs, and turns back towards home. “I will. You‘ll see.”

***

But years have a way of passing. Jack doesn’t forget about him; there’s something _about_ Leonard McCoy, something that Jack can’t let go of, but as Leo grows, he gives in. Adults never see him. They forget, even if they ever believed. Jack has officially missed his chance.

Leo leaves town when he’s barely grown, heading off to college. He’s finally going to be a doctor. Jack watches him drive away one November with a small smile on his face, glad at least that the kid is finally going to get what he wants so badly. He even gives him a wave that goes unseen, before he sighing and resolving to forget about Leonard McCoy.

Until Leo returns, a few years later, with a girl on his arm, a smile on his face, and matching engagement rings on their fingers. 

Jack finds that he just _knows_ when Leo is back around. He can’t explain it. He’s been attached to children before, and he’s always had his favourites, but he usually has no problem moving on when they stop believing. But now…he had felt a sudden tug at his heart, and found himself drawn impossibly to the McCoy house for the first time in years. Drifting around it now, he feels his heart lurch yet again when Leo steps outside. 

His eyes widen at the sight of him. Gone is the scrawny kid he used to know; Leo has grown tall and broad, with legs that go on for miles, piercing hazel eyes and lips that Jack really, _really_ wants to kiss.

He floats backward a little, surprised with the intensity of feeling flooding through him. He hasn’t felt like this in over three hundred years. He had assumed that he _couldn’t_ feel like that, not since the whole dying thing. He can remember one guy in his village, back when he was alive; Alistair, a guy with eyes that sparkled with joy and lips that would spread into a smile that felt as if it was just for him. He remembers feeling like this when he had looked at him, feeling his pulse pounding and his breath quickening and his heart demanding to be with this dazzling man. But since he became Jack Frost? There’s been nothing even close to that.

The delighted smile that had appeared on his face fades when a woman steps out of the house after Leo and takes his hand. Oh. Of course. _Of course_ Leo has somebody. He watches her when she chases after him, the two of them taking off into the field, and he sees the way she looks at him, so full of love and laughter, and sighs. At least somebody else has figured out how special Leo McCoy is.

The town is beautiful under Jack’s watchful gaze, and his heart has been singing ever since he spotted the man Leo has become; filled with joy, he’s indulged himself in the first real snow of winter. The evening air is still and crisp, and the light of the moon twinkles in the coating of frost on everything. Jack thinks it’s perfect. 

So does Leo’s fiancée. Jack feels another stab of jealousy when he sees the way Leo looks at her, the way he focuses all of his attention on her in a way he’s never done for anyone else. Then he smiles, bittersweet but happy for the lonely little kid he remembers so well. They look complete together, her red hair shining next to his own dark head, both of them laughing softly as they sneak out of his parents’ house.

“This place is so beautiful,” she murmurs, as they walk arm in arm through the fields behind the house. Leo smiles.

“ _You_ are so beautiful.”

“And you’re so cheesy,” she laughs, but her eyes sparkle. Jack rolls his eyes. 

“See, this is what I was talking about, all those years ago. ‘You are so beautiful‘? Maybe if you had ever talked to people instead of studying all the damn time you’d have better lines than that.”

“I’m serious!” the girl is protesting as Jack speaks. “Why didn’t you bring me home sooner? This place is gorgeous. It suits winter.”

“A little recognition,” Jack says pointedly, trying to jab Leo in the shoulder. He sighs as his hand passes through him, and turns to the girl. “Thank you. I try. How about this?” he says with a grin, and with a wave of his staff, sends fresh snow drifting down around them.

Leo sighs, and pulls the hood of his coat up. The girl, however, beams. “I love snow!”

“Do you love being snowed in, too?” Leo grumbles. “And stuck behind snowploughs, if you can get your car moving at all? How do you feel about breaking your legs when you fall on the ice?”

“You’re so grouchy,” she grins, and swings around suddenly, to nuzzle their cold noses together. “How can you be in a bad mood, when it’s so beautiful around us?”

“You don’t know him very well, if you don’t know that,” Jack smirks. “Leo’s made of grouchiness.”

“I’m not in a bad mood,” Leo protests, and a small smile spreads over his lips. “Not with you here, Jocelyn. I‘m never in a bad mood with you around.” Jack scoffs at this.

“You really have changed, then.”

“Len, honey? How do you feel about having the wedding here,” Jocelyn asks, gazing around. Leo makes a muted sound of surprise.

“Really? Why?”

“Because it’s gorgeous! Imagine a marquee, here,” she says softly, leaning her head on Leo’s shoulder as she looks over the field. “Maybe…maybe even covered in snow. Maybe we could have a winter wedding, right here?”

Leo looks at her strangely, before smiling. “That’s really what you want?”

“I think so. I think it would be perfect.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do,” he says easily, and she squeals and throws herself into his arms to kiss him senseless. Jack floats away from them with a flush in his pale cheeks; try as he might, he cannot look away from his soft lips, or the way he holds the girl close to him with strong arms wrapped around her. For the first time in his life, he feels like he’s spying.

He returns to their side when they’ve started strolling again, holding hands but a little way apart. He frowns and sends a few flakes down the back of her coat to make her shiver. 

“Are you cold, darlin’?” Leo asks immediately, his voice low and warm.

“A little. I think it‘s getting colder,” she laughs, scrubbing at her neck. “I didn’t think to bring a scarf. You didn’t tell me this place would get _so_ cold!”

“Winter always seems to hang around here,” Leo scowls. Jack frowns in return.

“Hey, forgive me for liking to spend time here,” he protests. “It’s pretty, okay? Even if you don’t exactly make a guy feel welcome.”

“Here,” Leo’s saying, ignoring him completely. He shoves his hood down and unwinds his scarf, soft and warm, from around his neck to wrap it around his girl’s delicate throat. He presses a kiss to the tip of her nose with a grin. “There you go.”

“You don’t mind?” she asks, already snuggling into it as Jack grins.

“Again, you’re welcome,” Jack says as she tugs it up around her lower face, breathing in his scent as he lifts his hood once again. Leo shrugs.

“I’m fine, sweetheart. Warm enough.”

“Maybe we should snuggle together anyway,” she suggests, with a smirk. “To share body heat.”

“You know, I _do_ think it’s getting colder,” Leo grins, and Jack can’t help but oblige. He thickens the snowfall, and kicks up an icy wind, blowing it around them as they both gasp. He laughs as Jocelyn drags Leo closer, shivering against his side.

“Definitely. Maybe we should head back?” she suggests, her eyes sparkling. “I bet it’s nice and warm in your room.”

“We’ll make sure it is,” Leo says with a laugh and an easy grin that warms Jack’s heart.

“Hey, you’re welcome!” he shouts after them as they trudge back towards the house. His cheeks are flushed again.

***

The wedding takes place a year later. Jack hovers around Leo for the entire day. How could he do anything else, once he spies Leo in his suit, dapper and handsome and simultaneously looking like the happiest man on Earth and as if he’s about to throw up everything he’s ever eaten.

Jack makes sure there’s a light snowfall, since Jocelyn wants it so badly, and what makes her happy will make _Leo_ happy. He keeps the champagne glasses chilled and stops the ridiculous ice sculpture from melting five minutes into the ceremony and spends the entire day wishing he could pinch Leo’s adorable cheeks. As soon as Leo sees Jocelyn in her dress and veil, his lips spread into a brilliant smile that shows no sign of ever fading. The sight of it takes Jack’s breath away and makes his stomach lurch.

When they kiss, he looks away, stung.

He leaves silently when their first dance begins, and kicks up a furious blizzard on the other side of the continent until he feels better.

***

The next time he finds himself drawn to the McCoy house, he’s not at all surprised to find Leo’s car just pulling up in front of it. He frowns curiously as Leo parks; the car has a trailer attached, heavily roped down, and looks like it could contain his entire life.

Jack seats himself on the hood of the car, peering in at Leo through the windshield. He looks older. Several years have passed, of course, but Jack can’t help but think Leo looks beyond his late twenties. He’s unshaven, and there are lines at the corners of his tired eyes.

His wedding ring is no longer on his finger.

Leo stomps his way out of his car and is pulled into a tight hug by his mother on the steps of his childhood home. There’s no sign of his father. 

“It’s okay, honey,” his mother murmurs in his ear as he all but clings to her. His shoulders are tense, his eyes closed tightly as his breath hitches. “Shh, it’s okay. We’ll make it okay, I promise.”

It takes Jack a few minutes to spot the small child in the back of the car. She’s wearing a snowsuit and a miserable expression.

Jack smiles sadly at the tear tracks on her cheeks. There’s no doubt about who she could be; she reminds him very much of little Leo McCoy, with her round cheeks and pouty mouth. She has his eyes, too, but her mother’s vivid red hair. She’s looking through the window to watch her dad, and sniffles sadly at the shaking of his shoulders.

Jack can’t stand to see a child miserable. “Hey, don’t cry. It’ll be okay,” he murmurs, and he presses a finger to the car window. As she watches he gives it a delicate coating of frost, concentrating to produce intricate, swirling patterns. Her face is a picture.

“Daddy, look!” she says when he leaves his mother and opens the door to unbuckle her car seat. She waves a mittened hand at the window, tears forgotten. “Look!”

“That’s very pretty, darlin‘,” Leo says with a tired smile. His eyes are red, and Jack thinks they must ache. His heart clenches in return, and he wishes more than ever that he could make Leonard McCoy smile. “Ain’t nature wonderful.”

“True artists are never understood in their time,” Jack tells him firmly as he lifts the girl out.

“But how did it happen?” she asks him. She’s staring at his work with wide eyes, sparkling with curiosity.

“Cold air freezes moisture on the glass,” he tells her simply, as his mother joins them. She scoops the girl up and wraps her in a tight hug, pressing a thousand kisses to her face. The girl laughs in delight.

“Hi Nana!”

“Hello, sweetie! Did you enjoy the ride here?”

“Nu-uh. It was really long and daddy only let me listen to my songs five times.”

“Daddy got a migraine around the third play of Bananaphone,” Leo says, his voice dry but the smile on his face genuine, if small. “C’mon, you two, Nana can’t stay out in the cold without her coat.”

“Nana’s not a delicate flower, Leo,” his mother scolds.

“Nana, look,” the girl says, and points at the window. She smiles broadly. “Daddy, how does the air know how to freeze the water in patterns like that?”

“It just happens,” Leo shrugs, but his mother tuts and aims a grin at him.

“Don’t you listen too closely to your dad, Joanna. He’s forgotten what I taught him when he was your age. Jack Frost does that to the windows.”

“Jack Frost?” Joanna asks, puzzled, and Jack beams.

“Sure! Has your daddy not told you about him?”

“No,” Leo sighs, long-suffering, and his mother rolls her eyes.

“Then I’ll tell you all about him myself, sweetie.”

“Listen to her, Jo, okay?” Jack encourages as he strolls atop the car. “She knows what she’s talking about, I’m telling you.”

“Jack Frost is a special little boy,” she begins. Jack sighs.

“Okay, so maybe she doesn’t know _everything_. I’m eighteen, okay? And that’s without all the centuries on top.”

“Jack is the person who makes it snow, and makes everyone smile when it’s cold, and paints patterns on the windows. All he wants is to make people happy.”

“Do you think he knew I was sad and wanted to make me smile?” Jo asks, and Jack laughs in delight.

“You got it, kid, you get me,” he grins. “Smart kid. Hey, watch, watch this,” he says, and floats himself back down to the hood. He presses on the glass with a chilly fingertip, and grins as ice spreads rapidly over it before their eyes, freezing into complex swirls.

Jo goggles, and _looks directly at him_. His heart sings and he beams in return, swinging around his staff with a peal of laughter. This is always his favourite part. He can’t help but wave at her, laughing when she wiggles her fingers in return.

“There’s no such thing as Jack Frost, Jo-bear,” Leo sighs, and Joanna laughs when Jack sticks his tongue out at him.

“Hey, do you mind? I’m standing right here.”

“Yes there is,” she says firmly. “I can see him.”

“That’s nice, sweetheart,” Leo grumbles, and takes her inside. She waves at Jack before the door closes in his face.

***

He can’t help going to see her when she’s been tucked up in bed. To his joy, she’s wide awake and waiting for him with the window open. “You’re Jack Frost, aren’t you? You‘re not a little boy, but you‘re him.”

“Uh-huh! What’s your name?” he asks, settling on her windowsill in a comfortable sprawl.

“Joanna McCoy.”

“Oh, I know the McCoy part,” he smiles. “You look just like your dad did, when he was a kid.”

“You know my dad?” She frowns. “Then why couldn’t he see you?”

“Grown ups never do,” he admits, before giving her a lopsided smile. “But your dad’s never, ever seen me. He just…doesn’t believe in me. He never has.”

“But you’re real!” Joanna protests. She frowns, and Jack is reminded of Leo when he was young; they have the same stubborn pout. “Nana told me lots of stories about you. She says you want people to smile and have fun and not be scared, ever.”

“I like people to be happy,” Jack says with an easy smile. “I like to do things to make sure they are. Like, look, see,” he says, and holds his cupped hands out to her. She watches closely as he concentrates, crafting a single, perfect snowflake from nothing. He grins when her eyes shine and her mouth falls open, and basks in the sound of her giggle as he blows it into the air and lets it drift into her outstretched hands. She gives him a sad smile when it vanishes in her body heat.

“It melted!”

“Uh-huh. That’s what snow does.”

“But it was so pretty!”

“It made you smile,” he says with a soft chuckle. “It doesn’t matter how long it lasts, because it made you happy. And that’s what matters, right? Making sure you don’t feel sad, or scared, and that you feel like you just have to smile.”

Joanna nods firmly. “My daddy needs to smile. He needs it a lot. Did you never make him smile?”

“Once,” he offers with a sigh. “Just once. But he had his mom and dad, they made him smile a lot.”

“Grampa died,” Jo offers. Her lower lip trembles, but the look in her eyes is firm. Jack winces.

“Oh. I’m really sorry. Well, your mom made him smile, too.”

“She used to,” Jo agrees. She stares at her lap, before aiming a fierce look at him. “But they don’t make each other smile no more, so I want him to be able to see you, and then you can make him happy.”

Jack laughs awkwardly, his cheeks flushing as his mind circles around how he’d like to do just that. “I want to, Jo. I mean, honestly, I really want to.”

“Do you like my daddy?” she asks, and Jack feels himself flush ever more as he pictures his warm eyes, his welcoming mouth and the rare smiles he produces. His heart flutters ridiculously.

“I do, okay? Believe me, I really like your dad. But I don’t think I can help. He doesn’t see me,” he shrugs stiffly. 

“Not once? Not ever?”

“I got close, once,” Jack says awkwardly. “But it didn’t happen, and I don’t think it ever will. I’ve tried. A lot.”

“I’ll try,” Joanna promises. “I’ll make it happen.”

***

The sun is not even up the next morning when Jack spots Joanna heading into the same field Leo had walked with her mother years ago. She’s wearing her snowsuit again, and mittens, and a woollen hat with a cheery bobble on top, and she’s on her own. He flies over to walk beside her, frowning.

“Hey, Jo. What’re you doing?”

“I’m gonna build a snowman.”

“Really?” He looks at the sky, which is lighting up, but the moon is still hanging there stoically. “It’s pretty early. Or maybe it’s still late. Look, whichever it is, shouldn’t you be in bed?”

“I guess so,” she agrees, and halts. She frowns at his bare feet. “Don’t your feet get cold?”

“What? Oh. No,” he says reassuringly. “I mean, yeah, they do, but I’m cold all over, so it doesn’t matter. Hey - no distracting me! Do you want me to walk you back home, Jo?”

“No, thank you,” she says, polite but firm. Jack laughs. 

“You _really_ remind me of your dad.” He looks around them, at the silent house in the distance and the emptiness of the field, and resolves to watch over her. “Hey, you mind if I stay and help?”

“Yes, please!” Joanna trills. She hands him a carefully packed snowball. “Can you help me make this big? It needs to be big and round for his body.”

Joanna chatters to him as they work, her cheeks flushed pink in the light of the slowly rising sun. She wants to know all about him, and then all about all of his fellow guardians, and he is more than happy to oblige, especially if it means telling her about the time Bunny got his tongue stuck to an icy lamppost while trying to prove that no such thing could happen. Jack shows her how to build the best snowmen, and makes sure the snow stays firmly in place, helping Joanna craft a top hat for his head and arms holding a swishy stick she found. 

They’ve got as far as adding stones for his eyes and mouth when they hear a frantic shout of, “JOANNA!”

“I’m over here, daddy!” she calls back immediately, and waves at the distant figure of her father as he turns in the direction of her voice. Jack shifts awkwardly as Leo struggles through the snow towards him. He’s wearing pyjamas and a robe under a big coat, the buttons fastened into the wrong holes in his haste. Jack winces.

“He didn’t know you were out here, huh.”

“Nu-uh,” she tells him cheerfully, before taking his hand. “Play along, okay?”

“What? Play along with what? Jo, he can’t see me,” Jack protests, but Joanna keeps tight hold of him as Leo closes in on them.

“Jo!” He’s red in the face and clearly torn between relief and anger. “You come back home at _once_ , young lady! Don’t you know how frightened your nana and I were when we saw you gone?”

“I’m okay, daddy,” she tells him calmly. She looks up at Jack. “I was with Jack.”

“What?” Leo glances around wildly, before kneeling down in front of her and pulling her into a tight hug. “I was so scared, Jojo! You can’t sneak out like this! I can’t let you play out so early all on your own!”

“But I wasn’t on my own,” she says, and points to Jack. “I told you, I was with Jack Frost the whole time.” Leo takes a deep breath.

“Imaginary friends don’t count, sweetie. Imaginary friends can’t keep you safe. C’mon, let’s get you -”

“ - he’s _not_ imaginary, daddy,” Joanna says seriously. She pulls away to look expectantly at Jack. “He’s right _there_.”

“He’s never been able to see me, Jo,” Jack reminds her with a sigh.

“I know. Now you need to make him see,” she says, as if it’s that simple. As if Jack hadn’t tried to do just that for years. “Prove you’re there!”

“Honey,” Leo says slowly, glancing around them. “There’s nobody there.”

“Yes, there _is_ ,” she tells him with a roll of her eyes. “You just can’t see him. C’mon, Jack. Make it snow?”

“I‘ve made it snow for Leo hundreds of times, Jo, it won‘t work,” Jack says gently, but he raises his staff at her pout. “All right, all right.”

“Okay, Jo, I believe you,” Leo says soothingly, and stands to scoop her up. “It’s okay. Let’s go -”

“ - look!” Jo interrupts, and points at the sky. Leo’s face turns up and he blinks as fat snowflakes drift down lazily around them. “See? He made it snow!”

“Honey,” Leo sighs. He points up too. “You see the clouds? _That’s_ where snow comes from. Not from some imaginary boy.”

“No! It’s coming from the clouds but he made it start!” Joanna protests. “And he’s not a boy, he’s eighteen. He told me!”

“Whatever you think, sweetie,” murmurs Leo, and begins to head back towards the house with his daughter in his arms. “That’s what matters. You can believe in him, of course you can. It’s just that I don’t, okay?”

“No! It’s not okay! He’s real, daddy, and he wants you to see him. He likes you! It‘s not fair,” she pouts at Jack over his shoulder. “Do something, Jack! Do something _big_!”

Jack watches Leo trudge away. He stares at the man he watched over for so long, the boy he saw grow; the man who _never_ believed in him. He thinks of the way his heart ached when somebody else claimed Leo, and the way he can _feel_ when Leo is back, and he squares his jaw. Jack raises his staff and concentrates.

Joanna laughs when the snowman they spent so long building suddenly glides into their path. Leo…does not.

“What the -”

“ - it’s Jack,” Joanna says simply, and laughs when the snowman performs a stiff bow. Snowy hands doff his hat and Leo chokes and backs away, arms held tight around his daughter.

“You don’t need to be scared,” Joanna whispers as the snowman twirls stiffly in a circle. She takes hold of her dad’s chin and turns his head gently, until he‘s staring at Jack. “It’s just Jack.”

Jack sees Leo look at him. Sees green eyes dart from his bare feet, to his staff, to his white hair, and settle finally on his face. He smiles, his own eyes suddenly wide and watery.

“Manners, daddy,” Joanna reminds him with a grin. Leo swallows.

“Uh. Hey. Hey, Jack. It’s…nice to see you?”

Jack beams in return, and his heart _sings_. “Hey, Leo. It’s...it's really good to be _seen_.”


End file.
